CARY, NC  (Oct. 21, 2008)  –  SAS, the leader in business intelligence (BI) and analytics, was ranked first in the core risk technology category for a third straight year and first in operational risk and governance, risk and compliance GRC in Chartis Research’s RiskTech 100 report. The report, an overall market assessment of the top risk technology vendors, examined each vendor’s functionality, core technology, organizational strength, customer satisfaction, market presence and innovation. 

“SAS has differentiated itself from other Tier 1 business intelligence and enterprise software players by developing deep, functionally rich risk applications for the financial services industry,” said Helen Townsley, Director of Research at Chartis Research. “SAS offers the best in core risk technology – a cornerstone that is critical to the success of any risk technology project. In addition, both the SAS credit risk and operational risk management applications are ranked as market leaders.” 

Chartis estimates the global market for risk technology to be worth US $5.95 billion (external expenditure only) in 2009 and forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent. 

The Chartis report explained that “successful risk technology implementation partners are those that have the right balance of business and technology expertise.” The report continued saying “with reference to technology, they need to have skills in key market leading technologies for data integration, data warehousing, business intelligence and analytics such as … SAS.” 

As the category winner for operational risk and GRC, Chartis commented that “the current SAS offering is unique is bringing together best-in-class qualitative and quantitative risk assessment and reporting … unlike competitors [who] are strong only in one of those dimensions.” The research report further noted that “in latest product releases SAS has enhanced the workflow, issues & actions planning and loss data reporting modules.” Key differentiators were pinpointed as “its database of externally reported losses and its strategic involvement in the insurance industry loss data consortium.” 

The RiskTech 100 core technology category examined each vendor’s capabilities in data management, risk analytics and reporting. Chartis explained that due to “the data intensive nature of risk management, and the requirements for complex statistical calculations ... SAS has had a competitive advantage over some of the generic enterprise technology and specialist firms.” SAS was highlighted as “very strong in the areas of data integration, data storage for analytics and data quality management.” 

In risk analytics, Chartis called SAS an “industry leader in performing complex analysis of large amounts of data” with SAS® software’s  “optimisation routines and data handling capabilities … [providing] superior performance (time and cost) over most of its competitors.”   

For reporting technology, Chartis again recognized that “SAS’ business intelligence (BI) capabilities provide a flexible environment for customers to define and generate risk measurement and monitoring information” that “facilitate a two-way interaction between users and systems allowing for risk diagnostics, scenario analysis and key risk indicator monitoring.” 

"This being the third year that SAS has placed first in core risk technology is truly an accomplishment and testament to our effective foundation in enterprise risk management," said David Rogers, SAS’ Global Product Marketing Manager for Risk. “In addition, SAS receiving the top honor in the operational risk and governance, risk, and compliance category is evidence that our operational risk management solutions are addressing our customers’ GRC needs. We are pleased that SAS risk management solutions have seen several top rankings in 2008.” 

Recently, SAS was placed in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services by Gartner Inc. SAS repeated its lead position in Chartis Research’s report Credit Risk Management Systems 2008 for retail banking. The momentum for SAS in the operational risk management space and GRC was also evidenced by doubling revenue growth in operational risk sales for 2007, increasing sales of SAS for anti-money laundering and securing the leadership position in Chartis’ Operational Risk Management Systems 2008 for the fourth straight year. 

To download the full RiskTech 100 report for free, please visit www.chartis-research.com.

About Chartis Research
Chartis Research is the leading provider of research and analysis on the global market for risk technology. Their goal is to support enterprises as they drive business performance through better risk management, corporate governance and compliance. Chartis analyses the systems, products, vendors, applications and trends in the risk technology marketplace. This analysis is published in our flagship industry reports, white papers and research articles. Areas of focus include: Credit Risk Management Systems; Operational Risk Management Systems; Fraud Management Systems; Enterprise Risk and Compliance Management Systems; and Corporate Governance and Risk Management Methodologies and Best Practices. www.chartis-research.com.

SAS
SAS è leader nei software e nei servizi di business analytics ed è la più grande società indipendente nel mercato della business intelligence. Attraverso soluzioni innovative all’interno di un framework integrato e con oltre 45,000 installazioni in tutto il mondo, SAS aiuta le imprese a migliorare le performance e a veicolare valore, aiutando i manager e i knowledge workers a prendere decisioni migliori in tempi brevi. Dal 1976 SAS fornisce alle aziende THE POWER TO KNOW®